What have you learned from your audience feedback

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM YOUR
AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?
Simisola Adeyemi

IN ORDER TO GAIN AN INSIGHT INTO HOW TO MAKE MY
TRAILER SUCCESSFUL TO APPEAL TO THE MASSES, IT
WAS NECESSARY FOR ME TO TAKE STEPS THAT WOULD
ENABLE ME TO DO THIS. THE FOLLOWING STEPS I TOOK
INCLUDED:
•Written Questionnaires
•Film Screening
Simisola Adeyemi

ON THE 3RD OF MARCH 2015, A SCREENING TOOK PLACE AT MY
COLLEGE THEATRE WHERE I AND FELLOW MEDIA STUDENTS WERE
GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO SHOWCASE OUR MAIN MEDIA
COURSEWORK TO PEOPLE WHO WERE IN ATTENDANCE SUCH AS
PARENTS, TEACHERS, MEDIA LECTURERS AND OTHER NON-MEDIA
STUDENTS. ALL OF THE COURSEWORK WERE SHOWN
SYSTEMATICALLY.
THE LIVE AUDIENCE WERE GIVEN A MINUTE OR SO TO FILL OUT
QUESTIONNAIRES PROVIDED BY THE PARTICIPATING MEDIA
STUDENTS. THE AUDIENCE'S WRITTEN FEEDBACK WAS COLLATED IN
ORDER TO GIVE US GUIDANCE ON HOW TO IMPROVE OUR
COURSEWORK FURTHER . ADDITIONALLY, THE AUDIENCE WERE GIVEN
THE OPPORTUNITY TO SHARE THEIR THOUGHTS ABOUT INDIVIDUAL
TRAILERS/MUSIC VIDEOS ON CAMERA OR A VOICE RECORDER. ALL IN
ALL IT WAS A SIMPLE AND EFFECTIVE FORM OF GATHERING AUDIENCE
FEEDBACK.
Simisola Adeyemi

USING THE RESEARCH METHOD OF QUESTIONNAIRES WAS A
SIMPLE AND EFFECTIVE FORM FOR GATHERING AUDIENCE’S
FEEDBACK. IT ENABLED ME TO UNDERSTAND MY TARGET
DEMOGRAPHIC. I USED THIS RESEARCH METHOD BECAUSE IT
IS BOTH QUALITITATIVE AND OBJECTIVE ALLOWING A
POLARITY IN PEOPLE’S ANSWERS BECAUSE I WAS ABLE TO
COLLATE OPINONS AND CONVERT IT TO NUMERICAL DATA
MY INTENDED DEMOGRAPHIC WERE PEOPLE FROM THE AGES
17-21. BY ALLOWING PEOPLE OF DIFFERENT OCCUPATION,
ETHNICITY AND GENDER TO FILL OUT THE QUESTIONNAIRES
HELPED ME GET RID OF ANY POTENTIAL BIAS THAT MAY
AFFECT THE RESULTS.
Simisola Adeyemi

the scenes darker.
Simisola Adeyemi

FOCUS GROUP
FOR MY FOCUS GROUP, I ENLISTED THE HELP OF MEDIA STUDENTS
FROM A2 AS THEY WILL HAVE BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF HOW TO
TACKLE THE QUESTION AND GIVE GUIDANCE OF HOW TO IMPROVE MY
PRODUCTS FURTHER. THEY WERE ASKED A TOTAL OF 5 QUESTIONS IN
ORDER TO GIVE BRIEF AND STRAIGHTFOWARD ANSWERS.
Simisola Adeyemi

WAS THE MAGAZINE COVER SUCCESSFUL IN TERMS OF THE GENRE AND
DOES THAT COVER REFLECT THE GENRE?
This questionnaire is more demanding for the audience; because in order for them to
critically analyse and answer the question, they have to comprehend what is meant by
“reflect the genre” is. I enlisted the help of fellow media students who analysed the
magazine cover and gave me feedback on my print production. Since they are also
fellow media students, I concluded that they are more likely to understand how to
tackle the question and give me the best feedback possible. This question is
imperative in this whole questionnaire as it will give me guidance on how to further
improve where needed. In order to make the product (the magazine cover) as
successful as possible, I needed information on whether the lighting, costume, props
etc did their jobs of reflecting the genre as overtly as possible. By implementing two
options as answers allowed me to collect data on just how successful in the whole
packaging of my cover. Also, by giving people who ticked the answer “NO” the option
to express their opinions on how I could improve my cover helped me in constructing
my cover as professionally as possible.
Simisola Adeyemi

WAS THE FILM POSTER SUCCESFUL IN TERMS OF THE GENRE AND DOES
THE POSTER REFLECT THE GENRE?
This question again aims for the audience to fully identify the genre of my film poster
and give their honest feedback on whether the film poster was actually successful in
reflecting the intended genre of my main coursework and ancillary texts. Once the
audience can identify the generic codes and conventions that belong to a particular
genre then the feedback is easier to give. Although some understanding of codes and
conventions is needed to properly answer this question, it is not essential because
understanding and associating elements to a genre can be done subliminally e.g.
through products that are similar to ours for example ‘thriller film poster’. Most of the
individuals in our focus group gave feedback that our film poster did infact reflect the
genre which didn’t prove to be quite a surprise due to the fact that our poster was
assembled from bits and pieces of professional posters that already existed. Others
who didn’t find that our posters reflected the genre said that our poster text should be
typed in colours such as black or red which is a minor thing we have since corrected.
Simisola Adeyemi

HOW WOULD YOU RATE THE GRAPHICS FOR BOTH THE MAGAZINE
COVER AND FILM POSTER?
This question isn’t as demanding as the previous questions because one
may or not may not have an understanding of technology, so it gives the
focus group the opportunity to review both the ancillary texts effectively. By
having a numerical response for this question enables me to notice trends
in correspondence with the other questions and just how well received my
ancillary texts were. The purpose of this question is to encourage all
individuals there to give an opinion on how effective the ancillary texts are in
terms of professional graphical appeal.
Simisola Adeyemi

WOULD THE MAGAZINE COVER AND FILM POSTER ENCOURAGE YOU TO
SEE THE FILM IN THE CINEMAS.
This is focusing on the marketing and realistic aspect of film
distributing and production. It coerces the target audience and
demographic to be unsympathetically biased and condemnatory of
both products. It is suggested that they should see both products as
real media products and beyond a piece of mandatory coursework.
The multiple choice is used purposely to give a straightforward answer
that can be turned into quantitative data. The multiple choice answer
are as thus: Yes, No and Maybe.
Simisola Adeyemi

Can you suggest anything that could improve the appeal of the
productions?
This question is necessary in order to help our ancillary texts appeal to a
wider demographic. It gives the focus group the opportunity to get
involved and express their own opinions and views as opposed to the
“hypodermic needle” theory, this theory was the first attempt to explain
how mass audiences might react to mass media. It suggests that
audiences passively receive the information transmitted via a media text,
without any attempt on their part to process or challenge the data. By
asking this question, I have enabled my focus group/audience to be
actively involved in the process of our productions.
Simisola Adeyemi

TRAILER FEEDBACK [MALES]:
The male feedback ranging from ages 17-30+, from the screening were positive; majority
of the male audience were clearly impressed giving mainly positive feedbacks. This goes
to prove that my trailer was successful in targeting the male demographic; it was nice to
appeal to the male demographic because the movie was quite romanticised making me
worried as to how well received the trailer will be by the male population. However, I am
glad to find that there were aspects that kept them interested. A male teacher commented
“I’ll happily go and watch that in the cinema. Well done. You related domestic abuse and
the issue of sociopaths in a realistic way”. Another male individual said that “it looks like a
proper trailer and I really enjoyed it. I wish it was a trailer to an actual upcoming movie”
This shows that my trailer will be widely received if it was an actual trailer and not that of a
coursework.
My main worry was that the trailer might have used scenes that were in the same setting
which might prove quite boring to the audience but the male demographic suggested no
ways of improving this so I came to the conclusion that maybe it didn’t really matter to the
males.
The demographics also thought the genre of the trailer was reflected through the video,
which again is essential considering I was trying to appeal to a wider audience, not a
niche one.
Simisola Adeyemi

TRAILER FEEDBACK [FEMALES]:
Similar to the male feedback, the female feedback ranging from the ages 17-30+,
were mostly positive. However, a female teacher stated that it “derogatises the
female as objects for the pleasure of male viewing” However we didn’t intend for
the trailer to come across like that as I do not believe the trailer was shot from the
conventional idea of a male gaze. We wanted to touch upon the importance of
domestic abuse however the idea of this was misinterpreted. I agree there may be
scenes where the female character is dressed scantily but this is to reflect her
character’s stance and occupation in society. In addition, both the female and male
characters are presented with a flaw that accounts to their downfall. However, in
terms of improvement, I refuse to change the role of the female character as it is
too late to change anything and also because the female character’s occupation is
the reason why both characters met in the first place. However, other younger
female demographics who viewed the trailer screening all gave positive feedbacks,
this could be because they are unaware of the “male gaze theory” or they may
have just simply enjoyed the trailer. One even said she “emotionally invested in
Candice’s situation and felt empathetic towards her”
Simisola Adeyemi

MAGAZINE COVER AND FILM POSTER FOCUS GROUP FEEDBACK [MALE]:
From my male demographic, I received positive feedback which I was glad
about as it meant I was successful in fulfilling the codes and conventions
for both the magazine cover and film poster unit. It goes to prove that once
again my ancillary text reflected the genre. A male viewer, when asked
what he thought of both products, said “both the poster and cover were
extremely eye-catching and it definitely shows the genre that you were
trying to sell to your audience”. Another said “I like the simple structure of
both stylings because most magazine covers and film posters out there are
sometimes overloaded with images and texts” I agree with this because I
earlier mentioned in one of my evaluation that I wanted a minimal style and
structure to my ancillary texts. However, someone claimed “it was quite
generic” It is likely that the person in this case was not able to identify
himself with both products; perhaps he wanted something more “gory and
scary” however it also needs to be put into account that out trailer is based
on a psychological romantic thriller genre.

Simisola Adeyemi
MAGAZINE COVER AND FILM POSTER FOCUS GROUP FEEDBACK
[FEMALE]:
The feedback from the female demographic was one I was happy with. A
female viewer said that she like our poster and commented that she likes“the
picture of the female character and the intensity of her stare” She then went
on to explain that she thinks that the film poster represents the thriller genre
effectively. Another suggested that we needed to make some changes to the
colour of the font to a red colour, we tried this but we felt it looked tacky so
we settled for another colour. The female demographic were hyper-critical in
the feedback they gave, such as making the picture of Candice more
obvious since her name is the title of the trailer. We have since made this
correction. They generally liked the magazine cover, maybe due to the
actor’s appearance on the cover as most female students are somewhat
attracted to him so they may be focusing on the picture of him when stating
this.

IN CONCLUSION……
I have come to the realisation that without audience feedback, the failure of an amateur trailer
is imminent. From the audience feedback, I have learnt that different audience’s have different
expectations and gratifications from each genre. The positive feedback enabled me to
conclude that overall, my main coursework and ancillary texts proved to be quite successful
and effective. Although, I received some negative feedback, the positive feedback out-shone
the negative. However, it is imperative that I take all negative feedback into consideration so I
have taken those suggestions and tried my best as possible to fix any problems that needed to
be fixed. I found that I was right in making my target audience between the ages 18-21
because we found that it was someone from the older generation who criticised the trailer,
possibly because she didn’t grasp the idea and issue we were trying to put across.
The majority of feedback regarding improvements were based around the style of the font used
on the ancillary texts and adding a scene at the beginning that explains why the male character
descends into such a state which we have tackled since then.
Overall, I have learnt about effective codes and conventions in order to create a successful
unit of work and ways in which I could manipulate these codes and conventions to fit to my
needs.
Simisola Adeyemi

What have you learned from your audience feedback

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